You might be wondering why I chose the amazing picture of pro surfer Damien Hobgood getting burned by some random guy as this week’s featured image to go with the continually insane overbids San Francisco dishes out. Well…it’s significant in many respects (in my mind anyway, so hear me out).

1. Not only does Ocean Beach occasionally get world class surf (word is out, sorry), but it brings the pain, as does our market to many, many, many buyers continually burned by that other buyer that dropped in on them and “stole” their home. And just like waves, there will always be another home come your way, so bite your lip, regroup, focus, don’t get upset, and get the next one.

2. The Avenues are the hottest part of town right now to be selling a Single Family Home, as it is the last frontier where such a home is still attainable under $1.1M (check the stats). You can find these homes in the Outer Sunset, Outer Parkside, and if you’re lucky, the Outer Richmond districts. Miraloma Park is a hidden gem of bargain homes too, but no beach. For you out of towners, Ocean Beach is where San Francisco officially ends, and Pacific Ocean begins (the “Bay” is not). This is our “beach” neighborhood, which at some point will go back to normal programming of fog for months on end, howling onshore winds, and no hipsters cruising on their penny boards to check the surf, because it will be too damn cold and the bikinis will be all covered up.

4. This sale is $331,000 over the asking price, but really, it was underpriced by at least $100,000, so let’s hope all the marketing that goes out around it doesn’t say “I got my clients $331,000 more than they expected!” We all know it was expected to go over, and I guarantee if they only got one offer at $699,000 they never would have sold it. At 1200 square feet, or $807/psft, some might even argue it is a steal.

5. The photo caption on the Surfing Magazine article sums it up best with what people THINK is happening in San Francisco real estate, “A quick reminder that the surfer closest to the peak of the wave, or in the barrel, has the right of way. Damien Hobgood and some tech nerd“. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a great caption and it’s definitely evident in the water, but it’s not just the techies with all the cash. I’ve been telling my clients and readers this for years. There is an insane amount of money from all walks of life in this city and greater Bay Area. It’s easy to point the finger at one group and make assumptions, but I guarantee you, your assumptions about the techies and our real estate market are wrong.

And before you go blaming the techies for your lack of wave domination, or missing out on your dream home, reconsider that GoPro strapped to your board, the Uber you just took to work, that baby picture you just HAD to share on Instagram, and all the other tech channels you can’t live without whether you’ve been living here 40 years, or 4. The city is a changing. Embrace the Chaos.

I think it’s important everybody living in and around, moving to and moving from San Francisco watch, and listen to this one point of view as to what is going on in our city.

The implications of the insane real estate market that is upon us are real, on all levels. Everybody (not just the buyer and seller) is being impacted by the pros and cons of absurd real estate prices. Be kind, respect your neighbors, and consider everyone’s situation independently, not as a whole. Put yourselves in the shoes of the tenant, the buyer, the property owner, the developer, the parents, the children, the tech pioneers, and the city’s workers…This is a slippery slope, proceed with kindness, and a respect for human decency and all will not be lost.

I am pleased to announce the launch, and early adoption by Paragon Real Estate Group, of the newest addition to the San Francisco real estate scene “The Goods“, real estate marketing made simple.

Send the Goods, Get the Goods

Sold & Active Listings Data Tables

Property Detail Pages

Include The Goods in your Marketing

Easily Sort Columns To Browse

Branding Available

The goal of this new offering is to make it easy for real estate agents in the San Francisco/Bay Area to provide their clients with what they need, and should expect, from their agent…time sensitive, factual, market data that pertains to the area in which their property is located, or the area where they would like to be. We’d like to put an end to unnecessary print marketing (think of the trees!), stop the sending of mugshot branded magnets, notepads, Zagat Guides, coffee mugs, and all the other crap clients don’t need, or necessarily want from their real estate agent. Keep in front of your clients with valuable real-time market data they can use.

The Goods will provide your company with a new link every two weeks to newly listed, as well as recently sold property data your clients can browse by location, property type, price, beds, baths and DOM. You can include the link in your marketing pieces, and also receive a raw html snippet/preview of the data to include in your marketing, inviting your clients to click through and track sales in their area.

–The Goods is a terrific tool for our agents to deliver to our clients: It’s fast and easy to use and it provides our clients with extremely timely and valuable information about new listings and what’s selling in the market, which is at the top of the list of resources our clients want most from us. -Patrick Carlisle, Chief Marketing Analyst, Director of Business Development, Paragon Real Estate Group

Here is a sample of how Paragon incorporates it into their marketing. You’ll notice they call it “Market Watch”. You can call it whatever you like.

The comparison of places one might set up shop, lay down roots, call home, or start a business is never going to end. It has always been, and always will be, a popular topic, and a debate sure to spark any conversation. It’s an important discussion point, and one that would certainly need to be hashed out for any future residents or visitors alike to San Francisco or other places. Therefore, it’s time for another Battle Royale that we somehow failed to do previously…

San Francisco or Palo Alto, if you had to choose, and why?

The argument has to begin something along the lines of “to each his own”, but in all fairness San Francisco clearly has a lot more to offer any hip young person that might be working at a hip young startup. Our nightlife is better, our bars are better, our restaurants are better, our access to recreation is better (this could easily be debated), our coffee is better, our surf is better (no…Santa Cruz is NOT part of “greater” Palo Alto), our hipsters are hairier, our marijuana is more legal, and our gays are gayer (because we’re free man…we’re free).

On the other hand, Palo Alto clearly beats San Francisco’s ass in regards to summertime weather, cleanliness of streets, college vibe, shear brain power concentrated in one place (Stanford), and being a great place to raise a family. But that’s just what we think.

What do you think?

Your comments are appreciated, will be read by thousands, and could quite possibly make or break a buyer’s decision on whether to buy a home in San Francisco or Palo Alto. No pressure…

It is jam-packed with new features to help you, the agent, do more deals, and give you, the client, more options when selling and searching for real estate. There is a fabulous tutorial on all of the great new features and how they work, so please take five minutes of your day and check it out.

Some major new features to highlight:

Real Estate Match™: As buyers and sellers post to the site, we do a little Match.com magic to match criteria and facilitate a potential transaction. Agents can post any property they have that is not listed on MLS, and ALL of their buyers looking for homes. If no matches are found immediately, when some do show up, emails will be sent. It’s online dating for real estate.

Privacy Options On Posts: Pocket listings are tricky in that some clients want the most exposure possible, while others want little to none, but they still want their property sold. When an agent posts a pocket listing on our site it is immediately searchable, but agent controls what information about the property to share, and with whom.

Principals Only: Inspired by our friends in commercial real estate, we give you the option to request anybody that contact you act as a Principal.

Saved Searches For Members: Do a search, save it. Refer to it later. Get emailed when posts fitting that criteria show up on our site. Simplifying your success.

Sharing with Social Networking: Whether you are the person that posted, or you’re someone browsing our site and you come across an opportunity that you absolutely must share, we make it easy. Using third party applications you can “Like” or “Send” any posts via Facebook, and share or repost via Twitter, LinkedIn, email, Digg, Stumbleupon, and so much more. Do a post, spread the word, and tell those in your circle to spread the word too.

Email Notifications of New Matches: Whether you save a search, or posted to our site and we’re looking for matches for you, we’ll notify you via email when something shows up on our site that might be a match.

How We Use Twitter To Get Posts More Exposure And Deliver Results In Real Time: It’s pretty simple really. Every post that hits our site is fed to our Twitter profile. It becomes searchable and we create hashtags for the city (#city) and a unique hashtag for our site that allows Twitter followers to see results only in their city of interest (#plcity). The more followers we get (and we’re getting a lot), the more exposure you get to your post (respecting your privacy options).

Those are just a couple of the big new features we released with this version. We actually have several more features lined up that we’re hoping to release as soon as possible.

We’ve already been written up in Top Agent Magazine, and press inquiries are coming in. The bottom line is that there is more real estate opportunity out there than what is on MLS, and clients deserve an alternative. Please help us help you by spreading the word and using our site today!

I can’t begin to tell you how many clients, friends, family, and co-workers base their entire real estate purchase or sale on price per square foot, and for good reason…it is the benchmark. Thank goodness a colleague at Zephyr Real Estate came up with this brilliant website, PriceSquares, so that all of you can check it out on your own. The concept is as simple as they come. The site strives to show you what is the average price per square foot of property listed and sold in a certain area, whether the average is going up, down, and whether a certain property represents a good buy or not.
Or as they say, “Price Squares is a new and easy way to see how San Francisco real estate is trending. Price Squares takes recent sales and shows you instantly whether the average price per square foot is increasing or decreasing giving you a real view of how the real estate market is fairing…”

If you have enough time to check out this post, you have enough time to check out this great new tool.

It’s the newest in new startups (I believe they launched two weeks ago), and if you ask me, it’s a great idea, simple in concept, and simple in execution, but oh so delightful in reward. Buy four coffees in San Francisco and get one free.Step One, Join:Step Two: Find Participating Coffee Houses:Step Three, Buy Coffee, Get Free Coffee:Step Four, Invite Your Friends. Get More Free Coffee:Step Five, Share Free Coffee With Me.

Simply brilliant if you ask me, and even more brilliant if/when they work the purchase of beans into the equation. I happen to be enjoying some Sweet Tooth at this very moment.